The Chimp Who Made It Big
In outer space, a Venus space probe capsule is heading towards Earth's atmosphere. A meteor narrowly misses it as it flies by. But another meteor flies by, colliding with another (one is green, implying it might be Kryptonite), and this causes an explosion which sends out radiation that turns the capsule phosphorous, and causes it to turn end over end falling toward earth. Inside the capsule, is a frightened Chimpanzee named Toto, in the suit of an astronaut. Meanwhile, at the Daily Planet, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are in Perry White's office. They had been following the reports from Venus Probe Headquarters. They are discussing the matter of the capsule, and how without control it will certainly burn up in the atmosphere. Lois is very upset about Toto, and she looks at a black and white photograph of Toto. Clark then slips out of Perry's office and changes into Superman in the supply room and flies out the window to save the capsule. Upon leaving earth and heading into space, he flies through a large amount of meteors, and using super punches, he clears a path. He makes his way up to the capsule and grabs it, and takes it down with a controlled entry into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, on the ground, in NASA's Venus Probe Headquarters, Lois Lane and her cameraman is covering the story for WKFA-TV. Lois reports that she can likely speak for all watching that they all hope that Toto is okay, and she goes on to refer to him as the "darling chimp" she's mentioned several times at the Daily Planet. Just then, the capsule starts to rock back in forth. Superman then uses his X-Ray vision to look inside. He then sees that Toto is increasing in size! He then busts out of the top of the capsule. Toto is now a gargantuan in size. Lois speculates that perhaps whatever happened in space did this to him. Toto begins stampeding around, he walks over to Lois Lane, and Superman tries to stop him but the giant ape fires Green Kryptonite energy blasts from his eyes, causing him to fall to the ground in pain. Superman is then able to deduce that it must have been a Kryptonite meteor that fused with another meteor which bombarded the chimp with radiation and turned him into a huge monster. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army make an announcement for everyone to clear the area, and they fire missiles at the chimp, and Superman, now regaining his super strength, gets to his feet and flies up toward the missiles and shields the ape with his invulnerable body. Toto continues smashing around throughout the base. Superman tells the Army to hold their fire, but he is told the Army Colonel they are under orders to destroy it before it wrecks the base. He asks for a little time, and they agree to give him five minutes. He then takes off in flight, and he grabs some lead, which the Kryptonite radiation cannot penetrate. He then fashions it into a shield. Meanwhile, the army are about to fire the rockets, but just then Superman arrives and they hold their fire. The chimp blasts his Kryptonite rays but they cannot penetrate the lead shield. He then tells him he's going to give him a "ticket to the Land of Nod." And then he punches him, knocking him out. In the process, the ape drops Lois but Superman catches her. Meanwhile, on Main Street in Metropolis, a paper boy is trying to sell the latest headline, about how Toto is returned to normal size. In Perry White's office at the Planet, Perry tells Lois she had a great scoop, but she tells him she wouldn't have been able to if it weren't for Superman. Just then Clark Kent walks into the office. Perry asks him where he'd been. And Lois told Clark it's probably good he didn't cover the story with her, otherwise he'd have been terrified. Clark then tells her: "You're probably right." Notes *Jimmy Olsen does not appear in this episode. *The scene in which Toto grabs Lois Lane was reminiscent of when King Kong takes Anne Darrow up the Empire State Building in New York City, in the film, King Kong. *This episode was released on home video in 1985 on the Super Powers ''Superman'' videotape. *References: chimpanzee; space capsule; trade union; farm; Venus; Zaninovich; bargaining; environmental control system; Gemini 8; vineyards; dictate; Episode Title The title refers to the Chimpanzee, who is Toto. Making "It Big" refers to him turning into a colossal giant. Continuity in other media *Toto is seen later in the Superman series from 1988, but he's only seen in the opening theme.